A Survivor Outside the Walls
Ringing bells and muttering crowds filled the agora of Mimas. The stone gate rose, chains clanking and creaking as they raised it. Upon purebred horses came the Wings of Freedom; the soldiers of the Scout Regiment had returned from yet another unsuccessful expedition. Their horrified expressions, blood-painted capelets and uniforms, and numerous injuries all made the masses shun them with looks of disgust abs ridicule. The commander of the Survey Corps still held his head high as he approached headquarters. "Are you joking?!" A man asked with husky voice, hand slammed on his desk. "You mean to tell me that you want to use part of the Stationary Guard on your next expedition?!" The Scout commander sat stiffly in his chair, a steely and determined facade showing itself to the Garrison commander. "Yes, that is what I am requesting." The Scout commander spoke plainly. The leader of the Western portion of the Garrison sat back in his chair in disbelief. He had never heard of such a request in all of his time as commander. "May I inquire as to why you need my soldiers?" He asked. The Scout commader leaned forward with a focused glare. "We have reason to believe that there is a human, if not humans, living outside of Cronus." He said, shocking the Garrison leader. "We need your top soldiers to join the Recon Corps on our next expedition into Titan territory." The commader of the Scouts waited patiently for the Garrison's answer. "Are you sure that no one else knows about this?" The Garrison leader asked, earning a nod from the Scout leader. "Alright, but this has to be strictly confidential. We can't have the crown knowing about this or the commander-in-chief. I'll mobilize my best troops and assign them to your plan but you must promise me one thing: you'll bring them back alive." The Scout commander stood up and left the room silently. Three days later Horses lined the streets of Mimas in front of the gate, ready to head into the now Titan-controlled Pallene. Survey Corps soldiers made a majority of the ranks while in the very front just behind the commander were 5 Garrison soldiers, one of them being the leader. His name was Roland Durant, the hands-down most skilled soldier the Garrison had to offer. Even as a squad leader, he was still a relatively new recruit. However, his skill trumped his experience by far making him a very favorable asset for this expedition. "Ready when you are, sir." Roland said, his squad already settled and ready to head out. The commander nodded and signaled for the gate to be opened. Every soldier, eqiupped with rifles, signal flares, and Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear, spurred their horses forward charging out of the district in the Scout commander's lead. They were en route to the last marked location of the previous expedition. This would be an all-or-nothing operation. Deep within a forest that wasn't very far from the gates Cronus, sat a teenager of Italian heritage by the name of Leo. He sat on top a branch that was hoisted over 15 meters in the air. The forest was flooded with Titans of every shape and size. "They are looking for me. Little old me?" Leo said chuckling. "Well I guess I can give them what they want ." When mm.eo said this a Titan of the 13 meter class spotted him. "Hi there....ugly." The titan charged toward him screeching, which grabbed the other Titans' attention. "That's just great." Leo ran to the edge of the branch and leaped off it. Using his Zip-Wire Gauntlets, he aimed and shot the wire at another trees swinging around and maneuvering around the forest dodging the Titans' grip. "You want to play like that, huh?" Leo shot a wire that connect to the face of one of the titan. "Now...do what you do best." As Leo closed in the titan grabbed him and pulled him into it's mouth. "You make this way to easy." The cord was planted on the back of the titan's throat, Leo equipped himself with his sword. "Bah-Bye" Leo's gauntlet wires pulled him to the Titan's mouth. With one swift slash Leo beheaded the Titan from the top of its mouth and upward. Slicing through the Titan's entire head, Leo quickly reaimed his wire to the nape of it's neck. "Like I said....To easy." The gauntlet launched him forward, slicing the nape, killing it instantly. Leo landed on a nearby tree as the rest of the Titans headed in his direction. "Ah...more fun for me." The parade of soldiers pressed onward at full speed, splitting off towards their respective positions in the large-scale formation. At the front of the center rank, Roland and his squad remained at the commander's side. "All right, our route should take us directly to the remnants of Teletos. It was there that our last mission made an outstanding discovery." The commander spoke, Roland listening intently. "I'm sure we'll encounter heavy resistance but that will only be a small obstacle. We must find our main objective." Roland nodded in obedience. He was not sure what main objective was but when faced with a task, Roland did what he did best and improvised. It was only twenty minutes into the mission that red flares began flying up from the left flank. ''Isn't that where Teletos is? ''Roland thought. The commander whipped the reigns of his horse, taking out and firing a green flare in the direction of the red ones. Without hesitation, the rest of the formation followed suit. "With all due respect, Lieutenant, don't red flares mean that we stay away from that area?" One of the members of Roland's squad asked. Roland furrowed his eyebrows and turned to him. "Our objective is in that direction. Regardless, don't question your superiors; it will lead to your demise, Marcel." He said coldly. Marcel nodded and continued on. Within a few moments of seeing the faint outline of what remained of Teletos, 2 Titans appeared, a 12-meter and a 9- meter from the looks of them. Their mouths readily opened and eyes blankly fixed on Roland and his group. "Commander, sir! Permission to engage?" Roland yelled out, preparing his blades. "Permission denied! We'll outrun them!" The commander shouted back. "Even so, we're still on flat terrain. It's a huge disadvantage trying to fight here." Roland gritted his teeth as he heard these words. The Titans were not only gaining on them, but his squad was very anxious as well. "But sir!" The commander raised his hand to silence him. Roland seethed and looked back at the Titans behind them. They were definitely not going to outrun these two. Looking at his squad, he could tell that each of them looked straight ahead and ignored the threat behind them. It was then that Roland made a brash decision. Unsheathing his blades, Roland stood on the saddle of his horse and turned to face the two beasts. He leapt off and squeezed the trigger of his left hand grip, firing the left hook into the left thigh of the 12-meter Titan. Pulling the gas handle, he propelled himself forward, his boot heels and blade scabbards dragging against ground. Once he was close enough, Roland jumped and used the momentum he had gathered and the steel wire to reel himself into the quadricep. He released the hook and slashed deeply into the muscle with both blades, slicing out a large chunk. The heat of the blood of the Titan made Roland flinch slightly before it began to steam away. With his spinning free-fall motion, he was able to turn and face the 9-meter Titan and fire his right hook into the back of the Titan's skull. He was going straight for the nape on this one. He squeezed the gas handles and shot forward, reeling back both of his blades. At the last moment, he released the hook and slashed out the nape with murderous intent. More blood splashed on his clothing before slowly evaporating. Using the Titan carcass as a cushion, Roland landed on the ground as the corpse deteriorated. With one Titan dead and another temporarily incapacitated, Roland called for his horse who had stopped when it sensed that its rider was missing. Looking over at the still fallen 12-meter Titan, the young Garrison soldier mounted his horse and rode off to rejoin his squad and the commander. "You guys just don't quit.." Leo stated landing on a 7 meter Titan's head. Leo turned around to see dozens of other Titan coming for him. "Follow me!" Leo shouted to the Titans moving from the head of titan he was standing on. "Its time to take them out." Leo gauntlet hook was shot onto a nearby tree. "I can take them out with one swoop...I'll have to be fast." Leo swung near the back off a titan. Having the hook release from the tree, Leo became airborne. "Now." Leo remained he gauntlet to nape, firing it and was pulled close enough to kill it with one swipe of his sword. "Another one down." More titans were closing in on him. Leo used him hook to grab onto the tree, swing around and kick one directly in the face with both off his feet. It caused the titan to spin around 180° degrees, leaving its nape wide open. With his sword in hand Leo sliced the nape; the body fell to the ground. "I'm really getting sick of fighting you guys. So I'm going to kill all of you....now." A 3 meter titan reached for Leo, picking him up. "Eww. Don't touch me." Leo sprung forward using the gauntlets' wires, slicing its head off. Leo was covered in its blood. "This would be easier if I had something to balance me, Killing them would be easier." Leo groaned stand on it while it was regenerating. "Although I could just shift into into one them." Repositioning himself on a nearby tree, Leo came up with an idea to kill them all at once. "Now come on." There were 6 titans remaining. They were all approaching him, surrounding the tree. "Perfect!" Leo smiled running up the side of the tree. "Only if someone could witness this." Leo hooked himself to the tree, jumping down. Using the momentum in his legs, Leo swung around the Titans undetected slicing their napes all at once. He then pulled himself back onto the tree. Being alone outside the walls was certainly a terrifying experience, especially when Roland was nearing a rather large group of Titans. However, as he rode by, he could see them crowding around a certain area. Deciding to avoid them, Roland snapped the reigns of his horse and veered towards where his squad was in order to link back up with them. "Whatever they're doing over has nothing to do with me." He said to himself. Just when he thought he was finished, Leo saw more titans running in his direction. Leo's head slumped down in frustration, he sighed looking down at the savages that longed for his flesh. "This is really annoying." Leo decided to make killing Titans more enjoyable by fighting them on flat land. "Although this would be considered as utter suicide. I want to try something different." Leo stated leading the out into a open area. Roland could see the line of soldiers in the distant horizon. He watched as they all seeming charged at something. That something turned out to be a group of five Titans, all closing in on them. Roland gritted his teeth and whipped the reigns of his horse. His heart was filled with courage and pride as he charged into battle with a roar. 'With these Titans behind me and give more in front, who knows how long we'll last out here.' He said in his mind. His horse beat the ground with a blazing fury, galloping faster than it ever had before and caught up to the other soldiers in no time. Roland drew his blades for the second time, firing his right hook into a 12- meter Titan's right arm. He leapt off of his horse and squeezed the gas handle in order to propel himself forward towards the Titan's arm. It swung its right arm in an attempt to swat him like a fly but the highly skilled Garrison trooper compensated by both releasing his right hook and firing his left hook into the Titan's hip. Once he was cleared of the danger, Roland reeled himself in once more, released the hook, and spun forward with his blades to attack the hamstring of Titan. He cut a slit into the Titan's muscle causing it to fall forward. In that instance, Roland fired his right hook into the falling body in order to land safely. His body was strained heavily in that last maneuver but he had to press on. Another soldier, a Scout, came in and attacked the nape of the fallen Titan, ending its existence in cold blood. "We won't be able to keep up this open area fighting." Roland said worriedly. They would sooner or later run out of gas and strength before making it to Teletos. Category:Cronus